History of Traveling Shows In America

International Independent Showmen’s Museum Keeps Early Form of Entertainment Alive

Long ago, when the country was still young and everything was infinitely possible, mile long railroad trains loaded with colorful wagons full of exotic mysteries traveled through the darkness of night bringing the only form of entertainment that many in early America would ever experience.

Remembering this important part of Americana and the interesting people who spent their lives being a part of it is what the International Independent Showmen’s Museum is all about. It is a museum that showcases those early forms of entertainment in America. As the talker standing on the bally stage would have told you “The Big Show is On The Inside.”

Come visit me and see firsthand, the real history of traveling shows in America and the mark that all the hard working people left here in the Tampa Bay, Gibsonton and Riverview, Florida area at The International Independent Showmen’s Museum.

Johnny J. Jones An Early “Master Showman”

Early Life and Career

Johnny’s father, Ebenezer Jones, was a coal miner of Welsh descent born in Llanrwst, Wales. His mother, Ann Harris Jones was also born in Wales. After immigrating to America in the early 1870’s his family soon moved to Du Bois, Clearfield County.Johnny Jenkins Jones was born in Arnot, Pennsylvania, Tioga County on June 8, 1874.

At the age of ten, Jones worked in local coal mines to help support his family. Later as a newsboy he hawked newspapers and soon progressed from newsboy to “news butcher” aboard Pennsylvania Railroad passenger trains selling papers, sandwiches, cigars and sundries. “After the arrival of the 1 o’clock train Johnny J. Jones could be heard yelling at the top of his voice, “Get your Pittsburgh Gazette; all about the big fire.” In 1895, Jones invested in a cane rack booth at a local fairground. By 1899, he added a novel miniature railroad, purchased a railroad car, built his own Ferris wheel and played a regular fair route with his own gilly carnival in Western Pennsylvania titled “The Johnny J. Jones Ferris Wheel Company. In 1906, Jones added a circus attraction to the show title, the “Johnny J. Jones Exposition Shows & Trained Wild Animal Exhibition.”

Jones traveled throughout the Eastern U.S. and Canada, providing midway amusements at principal fairs including the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto. In 1916, the Johnny J.Jones show traveled west of the Mississippi River with fairs in Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Jones was a successful showman and wore a fashionable drooping mustache that became his show business trademark. In 1917, Jones was nationally showcased on the journal covers of Billboard and Optimist magazines.

In 1920, Jones married carnival business veteran Etta Louise “Hody” Hurd. The couple had one child, Johnny J. Jones, Jr., born in 1921. In the tradition of the carnival families, Johnny Jr. became part of the show and his seventh birthday pageant was witnessed by thousands in Regina Saskatchewan when he was made a member of the Cree Indian tribe. Some 200 Indians in full war paint, beat on tom-toms and chanted war songs as Johnny Jr., his father, mother and Aunt Sue were approached by Chief Red Dog, who addressed the youngster seated on his pony. He was given the name, O-skun-a- kas-as-tay-kee-napasis, meaning in English, “Regina Boy.”

“Susie the Graf Zeppelin Gorilla”

“Susie the Gorilla” earned fame on August 4, 1929, by crossing the Atlantic on an epoch making flight of the Graf Zeppolin. Susie and the Johnny J. Jones Exposition received national publicity about the journey and $2,000 was paid for her passage. At the time, she was the only female gorilla in the United States. Susie, was captured in the Belgian Congo at the age of six months, was first sold to a group of French explorers who sent her to France. Susie was shown with a variety of traveling shows. First with the Johnny J.Jones Exposition and then the Miller Bros. 101 Ranch Shows and later the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Baily Circus. In 1931, Robert J. Sullivan permanently loaned Susie to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Susie was, in her day, the first and only trained Gorilla in the world. Susie’s trainer, William Dressman, taught her how eat with a knife and fork and orchestrated two performances every day. Susie was so popular that on her birthday on August 7, 1936 more than 16,000 visitors flocked to the zoo. Susie remained one of the most popular animals at the zoo until her death on October 29, 1947. Her body was donated to the University Of Cinncinatti where her skeleton remained on display until it was destroyed in a fire in 1974.

Johnny J. Jones was a celebrity and attracted famous personalities such as Thomas A. Edison and Henry Ford to shows. In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Edison celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary at the Ft. Myers ,Florida Fair where they roamed the Midway. It didn’t take long for the greatest showman of his time to meet and strike up a friendship with the greatest inventor of all time. The Edisons were so enthralled with the midgets that Jones and the little people were invited for a visit to the Edison estate the following evening. Edison continued his friendship with Jones and visited him in Du Bois, Pennsylvania Johnny’s hometown.

Jones was billed as “The Mighty Monarch of the Tented World” and “The Midway King.” The Exposition had a reputation as a “Sunday School” operation with no grift allowed on his midway and newspaper editors provided favorable publicity. When the Exposition visited Washington, D.C., billboards posted on street cars read “Johnny’s Coming” and Johnny’s Here”. Jones attributed success to keeping the faith with the public, performers, city officials, newspapers and fair committees. One appreciative Pennsylvania newspaper editor wrote, “A home without a mother is like a fair without Johnny J. Jones.”

Jones was the first showmen to purchase steel railroad cars, and his collective amusements in America the first to reach the 30-car size. In 1928, Jones combined his two traveling carnivals into one long train of 50 steel cars carrying 100 wagons.The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Baily Circus was the only show in America that was bigger than the Johnny J. Jones Exposition

Tragedy struck when his brother Ebenezer (“Abe”) died as a result of injuries from a brutal mugging in a rail yard. Abe traveled with Johnny most of his life and worked in various management roles.

When Jones was at height of success, the American economy collapsed on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, and the Great Depression enveloped the country.

Johnny’s Final Days

Jones consumed alcohol since his teenage days and was hospitalized in the mid-twenties for alcoholism. The Great Depression was a financial disaster for Jones and he was in debt when the season ended in 1930. On Christmas Day, 1930, Jones, bedridden for two days in his private railroad car in Deland Florida, died from renal failure at the age of 56. Johnny’s funeral was a show business event in Deland. Many showmen, fair executives, local officials and out of state dignitaries attended including a delegation from Canada and a police captain representing the District Of Colombia.

Jones’ train and circus wagons bore the slogan “Du Bois The Capital of the World” and he often returned during the summer marching his concert band to his mother’s grave at Rumbarger Cemetary. “There he heaped her grave with beautiful flowers, and his band played with such harmony and perfection as to bring tears to the thousands gathered there to see and hear.” Jones was generous to local charities and on one visit donated a children’s ward to the Du Bois Hospital .

After Jones’ death, Du Bois Pennsylvannia remained a loyal venue for another twenty years. In 1949, 7,000 visited the midway the first day. In 1950, the Johnny J.Jones Exposition played their last show in Du Bois the only financially successful show of the season. The sponsor was the Du Bois Voluenteer Fire Dept. A large crowd turned out to greet the great show train and witness the unloading of the wagons, and there was a big parade with three local bands. It was a special occasion for the Jones family, and Johnny J. Jones Jr. and his oldest daughter Candy did radio promotions on station WCED in Du Bois, and talked about the history of the Jones family. Jones was a lifelong member of Du Bois Garfield Lodge#559 F & A M and the Jaffa Shrine, AltoonaPernnsylvannia

The JJJ Show Goes On

Hody Hurd Jones continued to manage the Exposition from her private railroad car for another twenty years.Johnny J. Jones, Jr. also continued to manage the Exposition and at the age of 16 was Assistant Director of the show.Graduating from the Hayne Military Academy in 1939 and Stetson Law University, Johnny J. Jones, Jr. served as a B-24 pilot with the 458th Bombardment Group in the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII. Returning from a mission over Munich, Geremany on July 11, 1944 his crew was forced to bail out near the Dutch-Belgian border and was taken prisoner of war and later liberated by the Russian Army on May 2, 1945. After the war, he returned to the “JJJ” management until the show closed However, the once great Johnny J.Jones Exposition was never able to regain a full route of events and eventually ended it’s long and colorful life rotting away on a forgotten railroad siding where the IRS seized and sold the equipment for taxes in 1951

Pennsylvania historian Major IsraelMc Creight recorded, “It is sad to think of and humiliating to record, that Johnny J. Jones, who did so much to advertise DuBois, Pennsylvannia, lies buried in an unmarked grave, in the city of Orlando Florida. It is more evidence of the truth that public memory is short, fickle and unappreciative toward those to whom they owe the most.”

Re; …I have been through the process of having a once great show collapse around me. It is, in a word, terrible. To me, it is always a sad thing to see a magnificent tradition come to it’s end. Although one can argue that it is an inevitable evolutionary process, many lives of those ,who for generations called it’s midway ‘home’, are displaced and whole families are left to feel a sense of homelessness. It can be an emotional tragedy for those involved to hear the words “this is as far as we go”. By the time the end finally comes, the once brilliant paint is faded and peeling, the bright lights no longer shine reliably and much of the equipment in ruins.These shows are the fallen flags of our industry and their historical legacy is all that we inherit as modern showman. A somewhat hazy and incomplete trust to be passed along to those who will proceed us in the future. The few photographs that have survived open a small window into their past but that fragment of time can never tell an accurate story of the daily lives of those individuals who were so much a part of the wonderful history of those forgotten old shows.

Many years ago I worked as the Chief Electrician on the now defunct West Coast Shows which ended up it’s season at the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix.

In those days the salaried employees of the show got little more than subsistence wages and had to supplement their income in imaginative ways.

The electricians made an extra buck by charging for “cut ins” which was merely the act of securing ones electrical cord into the shows junction box with candy apple sticks.

The usual “tip” for this service was $5.00 which covered the entire run of the fair and gave the tipper the privilege of calling on one of us if he had electrical problems during the date.

Most paid with a wink and a smile and were glad to be able to invoke our services when they needed us but occasionally we’d get a “stiff” who would promise to “catch us later” but always had an excuse when it came time to pony up the dough.

One such deadbeat was a miserable old guy who had an “ARABIAN GIANTESS” show and had stiffed us for two years running at this fair.

Greater Show World Magazine Holds The History of The Carnival Business

There are many publications out there that keep the history of traveling shows in America alive.

Greater Show World Magazine was a magazine from the year 1936 with descriptive articles about the life and times of the people and activities on the circus and carnival midways of that era. You will see informative articles that keep the history alive of the carnival and circus industry.

John Dillinger’s Car

You won’t believe what happened to John Dillinger’s Car – I was there for the whole thing . . .

By ‘Doc’ Rivera

As a kid I grew up around the Drago shows, a wonderful, small show that played primarily around Indiana.

The problem with a small show in the Midwest was that, due to the cold Indiana winters it opened up on the first of April and closed in October leaving me without a home or visible means of support for about 5 months.

I was 15 when we played the last date, winterized the equipment and put it in the barns for it’s cold winters sleep.

As luck would have it Gooding’s Show was playing a street fair in Auburn, Indiana a short distance away and I knew I could find a weeks work and a place to sleep sweeping counters in Bill Bell’s bingo but after that I would be on my own as this was their last spot of the season as well.

All went as planned and as the date in Auburn drew to a close I tried to figure my next move.

Patty Conklin and The Conklin Shows

Conklin Shows was founded by James Wesley “Patty” Conklin, (b. 1892 in Brooklyn New York and raised by adopted parents — the Conklins). He got his start as a sideshow host at Coney Island in the early 1900s. By 1915 he was running his own gambling games at various midways across the southern United States. This is only a small portion of The Life And Times of Patty Conklin & The Conklin Shows.

In 1916 Patty Conklin joined up with his adopted father and established Clark & Conklin Shows. Lasting four seasons playing at various shows around the mid west, the company folded after the death of the father.

In 1921 Patty moved the show north to play at the Winnipeg Exhibition. Due to a problems with the fair, their participation was canceled. While returning to the United States with a train car full of prize merchandise, Patty stumbled upon a show just outside of Winnipeg. They joined up with the operator of the fair, International Amusement Company and worked all of the remaining Canadian shows that year.

After working the road hosting small fairs coast to coast for 20 years, Conklin Shows bid on and won the midway contract for the 1937 Toronto Canadian National Exhibition, which the company won. The fair, one of the largest in the world, was a prized show.

Having the CNE contract helped turn it into a profitable company In the early 1950s Conklin Shows borrowed over half a million dollars and began to build permanent attractions on the CNE fairgrounds of Exhibition Place. In 1953 they constructed the Mighty Flyer, a wooden roller coaster, that lasted until the early 1990s.

The early 1970s saw the company begin to diversify, including establishing Maple Leaf Village (now Casino Niagara) in Niagara Falls Ontario along with running a venue at the base of the CN Tower in Toronto.

In 1975 Conklin Shows biggest rival, Royal American Shows declined to return to fair dates in Canada due to later disproved charges of tax evasion. In 1976 Conklin was awarded the contracts previously held by RAS – including the Calgary Stampede and Vancouver Pacific Exhibition, largely due to Conklin being a Canadian business.

The 80s and 90s were a time of growth for Conklin as it operated across the prairies with stops in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Saskatoon. It also opened up a number of smaller fairs as well as provided a schedule and route for many smaller independent shows such as Lauther Amusements and Billy Truax Amusements. These companies although bound by contracts to the larger Conklin Shows operated as separate shows.

Conklin also added many of its super spectaculars, some of which were never seen north of the border. Conklin was the first and only show in North America to have a traveling double loop roller coaster which took 28 trailers to move. This mammoth coaster named “The Doppel Looper” only made the trip as far north as Toronto and even this was not financially feasible after the late 90s. Along other rides that were one of a kind in a traveling carnival, were the Drop of Fear, the G-Force, and The Mark 1 roller coaster.

As time progressed Conklin began to show signs of financial strain that was synonymous with the entire traveling carnival industry. Favorites such as the Zipper and Octopus as well as The Kamikaze and Rainbow were phased out and sold as cost-cutting measures. Independents that had long traveled as a part of Conklin Shows were also phased out as a cost-cutting measure. Finally other rides such as the Drop of Fear and the Wildcat roller coaster were phased out as cost-cutting measures and allowed to be sold to competing companies and shelved in West Palm Beach.

Finally, Conklin Shows joined with the former Farrow Shows from Jackson Mississippi, Thebault-Blomsness (Astro Amusements and All Star Amusements), and former President and CEO of Ticketmaster Group, Frederic Rosen, to form the newly minted North American Midway Entertainment Co. or N.A.M.E. (N.A.M.E. Website). This became official in Columbia South Carolina in 2004. In January 2006, N.A.M.E. also acquired Mid America Shows, and several contracts and rides from Cumberland Valley Shows.

N.A.M.E. provides rides at over 145 fairs and events yearly. Now included are Cinco de Mayo in New Orleans as well as the Dade Co. Fair, The Illinois State Fair, the Kentucky State Fair, the Indiana State Fair, and the Big E Eastern States Exposition. New and more expensive rides have been added to its line-up but at the cost of many of the old favorites. Frank Conklin while owning part of N.A.M.E., has left the management of the combined company to others.

Below you will find a link to five, separate, ten minute clips that encompass an hour long feature program, The Life And Times of Patty Conklin and The Conklin Shows. Click the bottom of the picture to start the series and go to the next one from the red advance at the bottom of the frame.

This is not some sugar coated biography but an in depth look into the life of a great showman, Patty Conlin.

Midway Slideshow

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Hrubetz is generally credited with inventing the venerable Paratrooper ride.This ride today is considered a staple on most midways in America sharing the spotlight with such consistent old favorites as the Tilt-A-Whirl and Merry-Go-Round. The ride was, in many ways, basically an improvement over the previously designed "Spitfire" which had bulkier, airplane style tubs and took up more truck and wagon space and was harder to set up and move. However, in the context of: "everything old is new again," I submit a photo of one of the first Paratrooper style rides, which you can see was invented far earlier, probably in the early 1920's. ... See MoreSee Less

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